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Iowa's Grassley is first non-lawyer to head Senate Judiciary Committee
Sen. Charles E. Grassley is fond of calling himself "a pig farmer from Iowa," but both friends and political opponents don't buy the country rube image. The 81-year-old Republican is expected Thursday to become the first nonlawyer to be elected chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in its 198-year history. Though he may occasionally crank up his old John Deere tractor when visiting his farm in New Hartford during Senate breaks, Grassley is better known in Washington for expertly grilling lawyers and judges during 34 years of committee hearings. "People have a tendency to underestimate Chuck Grassley," said Tim Hagle, a political science professor at the...
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Iowa's Grassley is first nonlawyer to head Senate Judiciary Committee
Sen. Charles E. Grassley is fond of calling himself "a pig farmer from Iowa," but both friends and political opponents don't buy the country rube image. The 81-year-old Republican is expected Thursday to become the first nonlawyer to be elected...
U.S.-China climate change deal already facing challenges
A landmark agreement on climate change between the U.S. and China, the world's top two polluting nations, faced immediate challenges from experts who warned that it would require an overhaul of China's economy and from Republicans in Congress who vowed...
California legislators flying to Maui to meet with special interests
With the dust still settling from last week's election, two dozen state lawmakers are flying to luxury resorts in Hawaii for conferences subsidized and attended by interests that lobby the Legislature: oil companies, public employee unions, drug and...
California Legislature is looking more moderate due to voting reforms
Until last week, no Democratic state legislator running for reelection had lost to a Republican in 20 years. Then suddenly three did. When incumbents start losing their legislative seats, it means something is happening. The national...
Republican Dan Sullivan wins Alaska Senate race, ousting Mark Begich
One week after the midterm election, former Alaska Atty. Gen. Dan Sullivan won the state's costly, hard-fought U.S. Senate contest, giving Republicans an eight-seat gain nationally with one race still to be decided. Sullivan was about 8,000...
Why the U.S.-China climate deal is so important
Global-warming talks in Paris next year have a better chance of reaching a productive conclusion now that the two biggest economies in the world ? which also happen to be the two biggest climate polluters ? have promised to curb...
History gives clues to Chief Justice Roberts' thinking on new Obamacare case
The Supreme Court's surprising decision last week to hear a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act has once again focused attention on Chief Justice John Roberts, who cast the deciding vote in a 2012 decision that saved Obamacare from being declared unconstitutional. Many court watchers...
Republican Dan Sullivan wins Senate race in Alaska
Republican Dan Sullivan has won Alaska's U.S. Senate race, defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Begich, officials said. Sullivan led Begich by about 8,100 votes on election night last week, and when state officials counted absentee and...
Obama may be too sane for our crazy world
An NBC report about this week?s Asian economic summit in Beijing had a shot of the various leaders walking together like a crowd of students on their way to a third-period history class. Russian President Vladimir Putin...
Fight for Louisiana Senate seat prompts dueling votes on Keystone
The House and Senate are set to consider dueling measures that aim to advance the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline project, as the politics of Louisiana's unresolved Senate election spilled into the first day of the lame-duck session of Congress.
FCC chairman faces balancing act on net neutrality issue
The Internet's future as a free-flowing network rests in the hands of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler ? and his attempt to craft rules for online traffic became more difficult after President Obama forcefully weighed in...
Lame-duck Congress faces a full agenda, and many obstacles
Congress returns this week to a changed atmosphere after the Republican midterm election sweep ? but before any new agenda is launched, old business must be finished. Lawmakers have just four weeks to approve must-pass bills to fund the...
Obama, Chinese president agree to landmark climate deal
Reflecting the urgency and scale scientists have called for to cope with climate change, the U.S. and Chinese presidents laid out ambitious new targets Wednesday to cut pollution in a deal that negotiators hope will inspire similarly dramatic...
Supreme Court skeptical over racial gerrymandering claim from Alabama
The Supreme Court gave a mostly skeptical hearing Wednesday to black Democrats from Alabama who complained of racial gerrymandering by white Republicans who moved more blacks into districts which already had black majorities. They used "rigid...
Marco Rubio joins ranks of possible 2016 hopefuls with new book
On election day, Bloomberg politics reporter David Weigel tweeted, "Polls are now closed in Alaska, which marks the start of the 2016 Iowa caucuses." Readers who miss the (very...
Iran's vested interest in nuclear talks
As the nuclear talks between Iran and the great powers unfold, there is much concern that a hawkish Republican Senate would derail the negotiations. But no matter what the new Senate does, the Islamic Republic is unlikely to walk away from the...
Is a war among women diverting attention from the war against women?
Have you heard? The Republican war on women is over! Well, the "Republican war on women" is over. The trope, if not the actual phenomenon, has joined the ranks of retired political euphemisms. At least according to Republicans. The...
Navigating net neutrality
Ever since he first ran for the White House, President Obama has been a vocal supporter of net neutrality ? the notion that Internet service providers shouldn't interfere with their customers' choice of online destinations and services. On...
No-fly zones over Disney parks face new scrutiny
The "Happiest Place on Earth" has some of the strictest airspace in America. One day last month, an odd pair of security alerts appeared on the Federal Aviation Administration's website, reminding pilots that they are not allowed to fly into...
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